TBR Tuesday - The Wedding Gift by Marlen Suyapa Bodden

I won, I won I won I won! I won a Goodreads first reads give away today - I tend to get overly excited about these! So today's TBR Tuesday will highlight The Wedding Gift by Marlen Suyapa Bodden - a Goodreads first reads giveaway! I will read this right after receiving it so watch for a review soon!

When prestigious plantation owner Cornelius Allen gives his daughter Clarissa’s hand in marriage, she takes with her a gift: Sarah—her slave and her half-sister. Raised by an educated mother, Clarissa is not a proper southern belle she appears to be with ambitions of loving who she chooses and Sarah equally hides behind the façade of being a docile house slave as she plots to escape. Both women bring these tumultuous secrets and desires with them to their new home, igniting events that spiral into a tale beyond what you ever imagined possible and it will leave you enraptured until the very end. Told through alternating viewpoints of Sarah and Theodora Allen, Cornelius’ wife, Marlen Suyapa Bodden's The Wedding Gift is an intimate portrait that will leave readers breathless. (taken from Goodreads)

To Be Read Tuesday Help for the Haunted By John Searles

Today you can get to your local bookseller, library or get on your Kindle or Nook and purchase this to be read feature.  Today is Help for the Haunted's release date and I wish I was running out to buy it but it is going to have to wait.....no sure how long I can hold out though!
Help for the Haunted has been highly recommended by Wally Lamb and Gillian Flynn, two of my favorite authors, so it has to be good, right!  Hailed as a creepy, unique, suspenseful and compelling read, I can't wait to get my hands on it!

It begins with a call in the middle of snowy February evening. Lying in her bed, young Sylvie Mason overhears her parents on the phone across the hall. This is not the first late-night call they have received, since her mother and father have an uncommon occupation, helping "haunted souls" find peace. And yet, something in Sylvie senses that this call is different than the rest, especially when they are lured to the old church on the outskirts of town. Once there, her parents disappear, one after the other, behind the church's red door, leaving Sylvie alone in the car. Not long after, she drifts off to sleep only to wake to the sound of gunfire.

Nearly a year later, we meet Sylvie again struggling with the loss of her parents, and living in the care of her older sister, who may be to blame for what happened the previous winter.

As the story moves back and forth in time, through the years leading up to the crime and the months following, the ever inquisitive and tender-hearted Sylvie pursues the mystery, moving closer to the knowledge of what occurred that night, as she comes to terms with her family's past and uncovers secrets that have haunted them for years. (taken from Goodreads)

To Be Read Tuesday Riders by Jilly Cooper & a Giveaway!

I love horsey books and today's featured book has been on my TBR list for way to long for any horsey book, but my library doesn't have it and I haven't found it in any discount bins!  It's an oldie, first published in 1985, but based on reviews its a fun read that includes, horses, 80s fashion, sex, scandals and romance!  Any one have a copy of Riders by Jilly Cooper they want to part with!

Also - don't forget to enter my Blogiversary GIVEAWAY, click HERE to enter! 

Set against the glorious Cotswold countryside and the playgrounds of the world, Jilly Cooper's Rutshire Chronicles, Riders, Rivals, Polo, The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous, Appassionata and Score!, offer an intoxicating blend of skulduggery, swooning romance, sexual adventure and hilarious high jinks.

Riders, the first and steamiest in the series, takes the lid off international showjumping, a sport where the brave horses are almost human, but the humans behave like animals.

The brooding hero, gypsy Jake Lovell, under whose magic hands the most difficult horse or woman becomes biddable, is driven to the top by his loathing of the beautiful bounder and darling of the show ring, Rupert Campbell-Black. Having filched each other's horses, and fought and fornicated their way around the capitals of Europe, the feud between the two men finally erupts with devastating consequences during the Los Angeles Olympics. 
(taken from Goodreads)

To-Be-Read Tuesday - on Wednesday this week!

Ahhhh, I know it is Wednesday!  The long weekend has totally screwed me up and I meant to post this last week and didn't get to and this week is seriously messed up so just to get this started its going to be To Be Read Tuesday on Wednesday!  But I promise, it will be on Tuesday from now on!

This is my first weekly meme! I even made a sticker (thanks to picmonkey)! On Tuesdays I will highlight books I am excited to read, but due to an overly long to be read list and a pile of ARCs they have to wait, sadly.  These books could be new releases, oldies but goodies or ARCs, the sky is the limit!  I invite you to join me in highlighting books on your TBR as well!  

Hannah Kent's debut novel, inspired by a true story: the final days of a young woman accused of murder in Iceland in 1829.
 

Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution.

Horrified at the prospect of housing a convicted murderer, the family at first avoids Agnes. Only Tóti, a priest Agnes has mysteriously chosen to be her spiritual guardian, seeks to understand her. But as Agnes's death looms, the farmer's wife and their daughters learn there is another side to the sensational story they've heard.

Riveting and rich with lyricism, BURIAL RITES evokes a dramatic existence in a distant time and place, and asks the question, how can one woman hope to endure when her life   depends upon the stories told by others? (taken from Goodreads)

I read an interview with the author recently and learned that this book was researched as part of her doctoral dissertation (if I remember correctly) and it does sound like it was researched very very thoroughly.   I love historical fiction (history nerd here) and hate reading a book that is not authentic or poorly researched, Burial Rites sounds like it will satisfy my requirements!  Currently, the novel has 4.22 rating on Goodreads and the reviews are great, I can't wait to pick this up from the library.  I should probably reserve it now! 

Have you read this book? What are your thoughts?